When Amy Butler arrived to serve as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Washington, three years ago, she inherited not only a church that had dwindled from 5,000 parishioners to about 70 on a Sunday but also a real-estate headache. Located in the heart of the city’s Chinatown neighborhood, Calvary Baptist owned four aging buildings and a parking lot that were underutilized and coveted by developers.
The church’s story shows how churches often enter development deals uninformed and unaware of the true costs and, in Butler’s words, end up with “the short end of the stick.”
Calvary first entered the development game in the late 1980s when the church sold air rights for about $1.5 million to renovate its Civil War-era sanctuary. Six years ago, Calvary sold off one of its buildings and the parking lot to a developer with plans for legal offices. In exchange, Calvary was promised about $11 million, which would provide $9 million to renovate its buildings, $2 million for its endowment and access to an underground parking garage.
Instead of an outside firm, Calvary hired the same developer who brokered the deal to manage the construction to ensure the project finished on time and on budget. That’s where the problems began.
“Churches are fresh meat for developers,” Butler said, noting that neither she nor the church volunteers knew what they were doing.
Before the project even got started, preservation boards withheld their approval until the church promised to rebuild an ornate steeple and clock tower that had been toppled by a 1905 tornado.
Legend holds that John Wilkes Booth looked at the clock after he shot President Abraham Lincoln at nearby Ford’s Theater, noticed the time and changed course. Local historians considered it a historic landmark.
The lacy steeple now rises above Chinatown’s skyline, but the handcrafted fiberglass creation cost the church $1.2 million. Butler said the developer, not the church, should have paid for it.
When the project finished in February, Calvary had spent more than anticipated — including the $2 million that was earmarked for the endowment — and ended up $500,000 in the red. Butler said the church will eat that cost but she’s not sure how.
At the same time, new members have more than doubled Sunday attendance — more than 150 — and the new facilities have helped provide a buzz and energy not seen at the church in decades.
“There’s a new building, a new congregation,” Butler said. “As a leader, I can look back and lament the loss (of money), but that’s not productive for us at this point.” (RNS)
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